Ford Edge Sport drives Newfoundland

For the next two days, we would be living on the edge. Literally. We had just landed in St. John’s Newfoundland, in its very own time zone, on the easternmost edge of the North American continent.

Husband, Garry, and I would be on the edge of sanity while trapped in a vehicle for 1,000 kilometres crossing the island of Newfoundland. We had a little under 24 hours to make the ferry that would take us across the North Atlantic home to Nova Scotia.

Luckily we had the relaxed and refined cockpit of the 2017 Ford Edge Sport to camp out in. We loved the comfortable seats, wrapped in perforated suede, both heated and cooled in the front. We wouldn’t need to use the heated steering wheel on this drive but it sure would come in handy (pardon the pun!) in the Newfoundland winter.

Unseasonably warm temperatures out here on the eastern edge mean we can actually let the heat of the sun enter the Edge’s cabin through the gigantic Panoramic Vista Roof. Big enough to fit a moose.

We knew we would be on the edge of our seats during the long drive, waiting for a moose to bound out of the woods and possibly end up on our laps. Before we left home, a good friend had cautioned us to ‘not’ drive at night and ‘always’ wear our ‘moose eyes’. We joked that vehicles sold in Newfoundland should come standard with that ‘feature’.

On this rugged, pristine island where the gangly gargantuan creatures outnumber people, we are definitely on their turf.

If you tire of gaping at the lovely craggy expanses of untouched land out the windshield, the 2017 Ford Edge Sport has many safety, technology and entertainment features to play with.

In our Edge Sport tester, Ford’s new SYNC 3 infotainment system lets me use my voice to make phone calls, control the cabin’s climate and even search for my favourite music to pump up the jam on the crisp-sounding 12-speaker Sony Audio System.

The infotainment system in the Edge Sport has a vastly improved capacitive touchscreen that has swipe and pinch-to-zoom capabilities and adds a layer of smartphone connectivity with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

This Edge is equipped with other technologies that keep you safe on the road and in parking lots. The new 180-degree camera with lens washer helps you see around corners and down alleys at slow speeds.

The Ford Edge now has an Adaptive Steering system which controls the relationship between how much the driver turns the steering wheel and how much the front wheels turn. As a result, low speed turning requires much less turning of the steering wheel.

One of my favourite systems in the Ford Edge Sport is the Enhanced Active Park Assist.

The Enhanced Active Park system uses 12 ultrasonic sensors to identify a suitable parking space, perpendicular or the ‘dreaded’ parallel, calculates the trajectory then automatically steers the car into the space. All I have to do is operate the accelerator and brake pedals.

Even though I hate to admit it, due to my never-ending quest to persistently and perfectly parallel park in three swift manoeuvers, I could have used the system the other day downtown. Driving a different vehicle, I was late for an appointment and I attempted to parallel park on the ‘wrong’ side of a one-way street. Stubbornly I tried and tried and tried.

I finally gave up, headed to an underground parking lot and sheepishly slid into a ‘normal’ easy-in easy-out spot. Thank goodness I was by myself. I’d never have lived that one down, especially with daughter Layla who thinks I’m the Grand Poobah of parallel parking.

Back in Newfoundland, the witching twilight hour was upon us, so I made good use of a feature I’ve been skeptical of in the past, the automatic high-beam headlights. I found the system of the 2017 Edge Sport intuitive and quite precise.

Then, there’s the power. The 2017 Ford Edge is available with three engines. Standard is the 2.0-litre EcoBoost turbocharged four-cylinder engine that makes 245 horsepower. Available is the 280-horsepower 3.5-litre V6 engine.

We made great time to Channel-Port-aux-Basques, on the extreme southwest corner of the island, boarded the ferry, tucked the Edge deep in the hold of the ship and looked forward to a six-hour sail.

I’ve always been a bit edgy on water. On the open water, I was feeling queasy despite Garry’s insistence it was ‘so calm’. If he said that one more time, I insisted my breakfast would end up on his lap.

Finally on the mainland and with a mere 500 kilometres to home, I silently thanked the 2017 Ford Edge Sport for bringing us safely from coast to coast on moose-infested Newfoundland.

And to the island of Newfoundland on the edge of the continent, I just want to say “God bless your cotton socks!”